Agile Software Development Methodology: Is It Worth Implementing?
What is Agile?
In a world where new technologies are emerging now and then, the survival of the firm catering to the instant changes and demand of the situation is manifested. This is where the term AGILE meaning quick and coordinated movement comes into play.
A key element of agile is flexibility in response to change. In a way, it allows you to successfully deal with unpredictable and turbulent circumstances. This caters to understanding what’s happening in the environment in which you’re working today, identifying the uncertainty you’re facing, and planning ahead on how to handle it as the situation changes.
This has led Agile Software Development Methodology to replace the traditional methods, which doesn’t stand a chance when we talk about building software customized as per customers’ demand in a specific period. Throughout most of its history, the term agile software development methods have been associated with the development of software and IT application projects, and to date, the term has left its footprint in the software industry.
What is Agile Software Development?
In the development field, it refers to the principles and values mentioned in the Agile Manifesto. In the case of agile software development, a project is categorized into smaller tasks delivered to the client systematically rather than delivering the entire project in one go. The intention behind this is to deliver a quality product in a shorter duration based on customers’ requirements and reviews. Different organizations prefer different frameworks and popular tools used in agile software development. However, succeeding with agile software development using Scrum seems to be new for companies to this work culture.
Cultural Transformation: Need of the Hour!
Before we get into the details of cultural transformation required for the agile software development model, let’s understand what culture is. Then, we can simply put culture as to how things work around a particular workspace.
What is an agile culture?
An agile culture is a form of workspace culture in which the core value and ethics revolve around respecting every individual in the workspace and working as a team rather than competing with one another. This leads to consideration of brainstorming ideas of team members, better estimation of delivery time, and greater accuracy in client satisfaction.
Critical cultural change element in agile transformation
The agile development methodology is all about the mindset and the process rather than a destination. The aim of shifting to agile culture is ultimately to deliver the best product to your users. However, the most challenging factor in moving from the traditional to agile culture in software development is following such guidelines.
Team In Charge Of Decisions Making
In agile culture, the team members are expected to cultivate new ideas, be creative, and most importantly, find a way to work together, unlike the traditional culture where members were supposed to follow a set of instructions or procedures of working in case of agile culture.
Solution: The team leaders must foster their decision-making skills and problem-solving capabilities. The team members should be trained to collaborate with the team and find the best practice they would like to follow.
Sudden Spotlight
In agile culture, everyone is expected to raise their voice in the daily standups, retrospective meetings, and sprint reviews to put forward their opinion to complete a task. Now, in traditional culture, team members were familiar with taking orders from their manager, who does most of the talking in the meeting.
Solution: The organization should bring to the notice of team members the benefits of voicing up. Due to the transparency offered in agile culture in software development, the success will go to the whole team rather than the team manager.